froch By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) says he spoke to Gennady Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler recently about what weight a fight between him and Golovkin could take place. Froch says that Loeffler told him that Golovkin couldn’t come up to either 168 of 172.

Golovkin and his management were previously interested in fighting Froch at 168. But if what Froch is saying is true about Golovkin no longer willing to move up to super middleweight for a fight against him, then it pretty much shuts off any chances of a fight between the two fighters ever taking place.

Froch says he only plans on waiting until 2016 for his comeback fight. He won’t wait until 2017 or later, because he doesn’t want to stay outside of the ring for that long due to rust. Froch hasn’t fought in a year and a half since his win over George Groves in May 2014.

Froch has no interest in coming back to fight IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale, because he doesn’t think that would be a big enough fight for him. Froch is probably right about that. DeGale has been fighting outside of the UK for his last couple of fights, and it appears to be a plan to increase his popularity at home by DeGale proving he can beat foreign fighters on foreign soil. This is how Froch became a big star in the Super Six tournament.

“Loeffler, Gennady Golovkin’s manager, I asked him what weight we could fight at. [I] said would he [Golovkin] come up to 172, and he said no. He said he probably wouldn’t even come up to super middleweight,” Froch said to Talksport.com. “So if I was to come back, it would have to be for a really good one like Gennady Golovkin and having said that he’s talking about dropping down to fight Canelo Alvarez.”

Froch says he’s put on more muscle since he’s been retired, and it would be impossible for him to get back down to 168 for a fight against Golovkin. It’s too bad that Froch couldn’t melt down to 164, because Golovkin might be willing to face him at that weight.

The timing is bad for Froch to be talking about a fight against Golovkin right now, because the Kazakhstan fighter has a chance to potentially fight WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Golovkin wants Canelo’s WBC title, because it’s another title that he wants to add to his collection.

Golovkin also wants to fight Canelo to prove that he’s better than him. If Golovkin were to choose to fight Froch right now, he’d give Canelo an excuse not to fight him. Golovkin isn’t going to give Canelo that excuse.

If Canelo doesn’t want to fight him then he’s going to need to vacate his WBC title or embarrass himself by hiding behind the 155lb catch-weight division that he’s created for himself in his last four fights. Even if Golovkin doesn’t get the fight against Canelo, he’s going to be looking to face WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee to add that belt to his growing collection of title belts.

Golovkin should be able to get Canelo’s title if he chooses to try and force him to fight at a catch-weight of 155lbs. That’s something that’s never been done in boxing before. A champion cannot force a mandatory challenger to fight them at a catch-weight.

The only way that something like that can take place is if the World Boxing Council allow Canelo to do that, which is doubtful, or if they give Canelo permission to take two voluntary defenses of his new WBC 160lb. The WBC will look funny if they do this because Golovkin was reportedly told that he would be getting a crack at the winner of the Canelo vs. Miguel Cotto fight. Now that Canelo is the winner, Golovkin should be able to fight for the WBC title at the full weight of 160 and not be forced to fight at 155 or be made to wait until Canelo has exhausted two voluntary defenses first.

“The only fight I’d come back for potentially is Golovkin,” Froch said.

Froch is now at the right weight to challenge Andre Ward again. Froch lost to Ward by a close 12 round decision in the Super Six tournament four years ago in 2011. Froch could face Ward, and he could also fight IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev and WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson. Those would be big fights, and Froch couldn’t complain he was too light for them because he now weighs about as much as those two light heavyweight stars.